Making Apple Pie
by pamela25401
Summary: Dean and Lisa receive an unexpected guest. Final chapter. Written before season 6 start.
1. Chapter 1

**Author:** pamela  
**Title:** Making Apple Pie  
**Rating:** PG-13/ mild language, situation, drama.  
**Fandom:** Supernatural  
**Disclaimer:** No disrespect intended. No money made.  
**Summary:** Lisa takes action  
**Pairing:** Lisa and Dean  
**Warning:** Emotional stress  
**Feedback:** Feedback would be lovely, thank you.  
**Archive:** VX and FF  
**Note:** As of 24 September 2010 this will be UA in the Supernatural Universe. At the end of season 5 Supernatural closed with Dean going to see Lisa. We were left with the idea that Dean would settle down and have a "normal life". This is my idea for what came next.  
My thanks as always for Bitten's work sorting the mess. Some day I hope to learn the proper placement of commas, periods, and semi-colons.

Lisa watched him sink; it was going to be a slow process but she knew in the end he would drown.

Those first couple of days had been bad. Bad for her. Dean had cried so hard. The things that had come out of his mouth; the secrets, the pain. It had almost been like listening to one of Ben's nightmares but this was Dean and he knew those nightmares were real. She knew those nightmares were real.

After a couple of weeks he'd seemed to relax but she'd known; somehow she'd known. The intense interest in the news, any news, always looking for specifics. Even locally. Any thing that happened was checked; witnesses, histories, even rumors and gossip was collected. Soon he knew more about the town, and the people in it, than she did and she'd lived there most of her life.

The Apocalypse had been avoided, this was a good thing, but Dean cataloged the damage and drank. All the death, the destruction, pulled him down a little more. It didn't matter that he didn't know them. It didn't matter that he'd never been to some of the places destroyed. It mattered that he'd been a part of it.

It mattered because of who and what he was.

As the months passed and the damage of the almost-apocalypse faded from the headlines, Lisa thought that Dean was starting to heal. She'd hoped. He went out more, took Ben to practice, he even got a job at a garage. But the prowling didn't stop.

Every night, since that first night she'd let him in, he'd prowled the house and yard. He woke so easily. Any noise would pull at him and he would check the house; two or three times a night. He even wandered the neighborhood, checking all the houses, if he 'felt off'.

Her neighbors had been a little spooked at first but after they understood that Dean had been a soldier and was still a little shocky they relaxed.

Lisa looked at the salt canister in the corner by the door and sighed; she'd known then, when she'd noticed the salt that Dean wouldn't "heal". He couldn't. Fighting demons and monsters and all the nightmares that were real was what Dean Winchester was. Fighting was the only thing he knew, the only thing he understood.

Except protecting Sam.

Lisa's eyes fell on the whiskey bottle tucked in behind her wine. Dean was good about not getting drunk in front of Ben but her son wasn't stupid. Ben knew that, when Dean went into the shed out back, not to follow. Ben understood that Dean was hurting. He also knew that Dean loved him and Lisa had to smile at that because Dean did love him.

It was almost bittersweet sometimes to watch them together and see that sad smile on Dean's face when he looked at Ben. He'd slipped once while showing Ben how to check the oil in her car; he'd called him Sammy. Lisa hadn't been there but Ben had told her later.

It was like quicksand. The news, the salt, the nightmares. God, the nightmares. He slept on the couch more often now, afraid he'd hurt her. If he slept at all. It was the strange pentagram under the rug in the front hall that had sent her out to the shed last week.

It wasn't the den of empty bottles and drunken stupor she'd feared; it was wall to wall maps and graphs and lists. The Apocalypse might have been avoided but the damage wasn't, and Dean Winchester was a hunter.

It had been a lot to take in, and she hadn't been able to understand it all, but she had understood why he was sinking. Every new indication, every sign, meant some monster was doing something; hurting someone.

And he was here with her and Ben.

He'd told her once, when he'd saved Ben's life, that this wasn't his life. He'd told her when he'd come to her after 'it' was over that Sam had made him promise to have an apple pie life. Well, this was what he thought was an apple pie life; a house and a yard, a kid and a mortgage, baseball games and county fairs. But this wasn't his life.

Lisa stared around her kitchen and wanted to cry. She loved the man and didn't want to lose him, but she was going to, one way or the other; she knew that. Hunting was a dangerous business, but so was trying to be something you weren't.

Sitting at the table she stared out the window.


	2. Chapter 2

Note: For non-supernatural fans- Sam is Dean's brother and is presumed dead.

It was a betrayal, she knew that, but the look in his eyes still hurt.

Bravery to Lisa was walking after dark in a lonely parking lot, it was deciding to keep her child and raise him alone, or at least had it been. She'd let Dean come back into her life. She'd welcomed it. Bravery had become not screaming in horror over the things Dean told her, it had become confessing the truth about Ben, both to Dean and their son.

Bravery became charging Dean's phone and paying the bill so it could receive calls.

Now she faced losing everything and she was terrified.

The ringing was going to stop soon but Dean only stared at her.

What was she supposed to do? She couldn't stand it but Dean was fast and covered her hand as she grabbed the phone.

He knew but she couldn't back down. She couldn't. This life was killing him. His grip wasn't tight and he let go when she pulled back.

"Answer it."

"I have this life now."

The ringing stopped and Lisa felt like crying. She'd betrayed him and failed. She was going to lose him. One way or the other. She swallowed.

"This isn't your life, Dean," she breathed slowly. "Please don't say it is. I found the pentagram, the devil's trap. I found the maps and graphs in the shed." Dean's looked hurt but Lisa couldn't stop. "I know what the salt is for. I know why you bought the iron bars."

What more could she say? Dean wasn't helping; his usual smart-ass mouth was firmly closed.

"Please understand."

Understand what?

"I love you."

"Then why do this?"

"Because this isn't your life!" Lisa cried. "It's killing you!"

"That will kill me!" Dean pointed at the cell phone in the middle of the table.

"You're a hunter."

"Was."

"You still are! God, Dean, you're … you're like a wild animal trapped in a cage." Lisa sagged into a chair. "I'm not stupid, I see what's happening. You can't stay here when all those things are out there hurting people."

"Yes I can."

"Then you're not the Dean I thought I knew." The words burned like acid in her mouth and made her want to throw up. The tears didn't help at all. She wasn't brave.

The phone started ringing again but Lisa couldn't even look at it.

The tinny sounds of Led Zeppelin sounded like a death march in the kitchen.

Dean sat across the table and looked at her. "Leese, I want to stay."

"I want you to."

"We can make this work. I can try harder."

She shook her head, "you can't change who you are Dean."

"I want to."

"What part of you will you cut out?" Lisa finally looked up. "What will you destroy to make that happen?"

The ringing stopped and then started again and Lisa wished the thing would stop. She was starting to hate it. But the phone was further proof, wasn't it?

"You kept the phone."

"I'll throw it out."

"You're very popular."

"They'll find someone else."

"Will they?" Lisa pushed. "I thought you said a lot of hunters had died."

Dean flinched and Lisa bit her lip. Those hunters had been Dean's friends. Sam. The name and the feeling, the presence hung in the air. Oppressive and painful.

"Will they find someone else? We need hunters, Dean. You know that. I know that. My god, if a hunter hadn't killed that thing that took Ben …" Just the thought of her son locked up in a cage frightened her more than anything. More than what she was doing right then. The thought gave her strength. "But a hunter did."

Dean looked at the table. No cocky attitude. He'd liked Ben immediately. He'd loved him even before Lisa had told him the truth. He had a son. Dean looked at the phone. He had a son to think about now. And a woman to love. A woman that loved him.

"I can't do it, Lisa. I can't make you live the life. I can't do that to Ben. He deserves a home."

"I know that."

"Then why … I want a life, Lisa. I want a home," tears rushed the surface and poured over. "Haven't I earned it?"

"Oh, god," she rushed around the table and hugged him. "Yes. God. Dean, yes. You deserve a home and a family. You have it!"

Dean snarled at the phone as it started ringing again. "Son of a bitch."

"Dean, I love you but this isn't your life. You need to hunt all those things trying to hurt innocent people. Please understand me. I don't want you to just disappear but you can't continue this way."

"I want a home," Dean choked.

"You have a home, Dean. You always will."

"For the love of fuck!"

"Answer it already," Lisa sighed with a half smile. "Maybe it's a wrong number."

"My luck's not that good," Dean cracked then looked at her. "I used it up."

"Are you becoming a romantic?"

Dean snorted but grabbed the phone, "yeah."

"About time, ya edjit."

"Bobby," Dean laughed to hear the older hunter's no-nonsense tone and his trademark idiom. "What do you want?"

"Your sorry ass in motion. I have a report of a poltergeist about three hours north of you and I'm in Montana. What the hell is Lisa's phone number anyway? She didn't give it to me when she called."

Dean handed the phone to Lisa and got up to grab some paper and a pen.

"Hello?"

"Lisa, how's he doing?" Bobby asked gently.

"Um, okay, I think," she watched Dean come back. "Is pen and paper a good sign?"

"Yes," Bobby sighed in relief. "Thanks kid."

She blushed and handed the phone back to Dean.

"Okay, Bobby, give me what you've got," Dean glanced at Lisa and she smiled at him.


	3. Chapter 3

Notes: For non-Supernatural watchers. At the end of season 5 Sam deliberately fell into a cage carrying Lucifer (to trap the devil and save the world). He also took his illegitimate half-brother, Adam (processed by the Arch-Angel Michael) with him.  
Also, I did some tinkering after beta so if you find any gramma-like duhs they are my fault and so not that of my beautiful beta.

Chapter 3

Dean stared, immobile, at the sight before him. He couldn't move. There were too many things going through his head. He couldn't think. The pain was too much. The memories were crushing him, shredding him alive.

Lisa gasped behind him but Dean barely registered it until she shoved him aside and grabbed the specter standing in the doorway, yanking it into the area of the devil's trap hidden under the rug.

"How dare you come here?" Lisa's voice carried such a tone of pained outrage that it shook Dean from his stupor.

"Dean's my brother!"

"Sam Winchester is dead." The anger in those words was punctuated with the slamming of the door. Thankfully Lisa remembered to stay out of the devil's trap and used the iron poker they kept behind the half wall to swing the door shut. "He took Lucifer back to hell." Lisa backed up and raised the poker for optimum swing; she had played softball as a kid.

"I can't believe you told her," the specter stared at Dean.

"Who are you and where do you get off coming here?" Lisa snapped.

"I am Sam Winchester. I don't know how I'm not in the cage or why, I just never was."

"Never?"

Lisa heard the raw pain in Dean's voice and wanted to scream, "All this time …"

"Why didn't you call?" Dean demanded painfully. "Why didn't you come here sooner?"

"You were out. You were going to settle down and have a normal life."

It looked and sounded so much like Sam. It, he, looked drained and emotionally leary. It was so easy to see all those fights again in his head; Dean couldn't stop it. All the fights, all the quiet words, all the painful revelations. But a Demon could tap those same memories in Sam. And use it against him.

Sam, the image of him, the facsimile, sagged and sat on the floor and leaned against the half wall. "I did come here. I watched you for a couple of days but … I couldn't ruin your chances at a normal life. I couldn't do that to you … not after everything else."

Leaning against the half wall actually placed most of his body outside the devil's trap and Dean sagged to his knees. _Sammy?_ But Lucifer wouldn't be contained by a devil's trap.

"Why now?" Lisa asked after the men were silent a long moment.

Sam looked at Dean but then turned to Lisa, "I heard he'd started hunting again. I've been hunting but keeping a low profile. The word would get out eventually, but it would stay in the hunter community. Dean wasn't answering his phone so hunters wouldn't ... most hunters would respect that. With Dean back … I didn't want him to find out from someone else." He looked at Dean, "I'm sorry."

Dean didn't say anything. He was recovering from his shock, his brain was working again, and he was dialing his phone and silently praying this worked. "I need you to come to Lisa's house. I'm looking at Sam. He's sitting right in …"

Castiel appeared in a massive gust of wind, sword in hand, but he froze as he looked at the creature, man, Sam sitting in the foyer.

"Cas?"

"I don't understand."

"Is that Lucifer playing head games or my brother?" Dean demanded. "Does he have his own soul or someone else's? We talkin' on loan, stolen, time shares, what?"

"He is Sam Winchester." Castiel stated in awe. "His soul is in tact and there are no claims against it."

Sam let his head fall back against the wall behind him and smiled a little. "I was worried there might be a price tag somewhere."

"I don't understand how this is possible," Castiel stated. "I checked the cage, Lucifer and Micheal are inside and the seals are closed tight."

Dean didn't care. It didn't matter right then as he half crawled, half staggered across the space of the living room and knelt beside his brother. "Sam?" He pulled him into a hug and Sam crumpled. "My god, Sammy."

Sam wrapped his arms around Dean and held on like his was five years old again. "I'm sorry."

"I know."

"I thought I could handle it. Control him just long enough …"

"Shut up," Dean smiled through his tears.

"I couldn't stop him. I could only watch. He beat you so badly."

Lisa sagged down the wall to sit on the floor as Castiel found a place on the couch, both stunned.

"It's okay," Dean stroked Sam's hair gently.

"I was screaming so hard for him to stop but he just ignored me," Sam sobbed into Dean's chest. "And then I had him. I don't know. All of a sudden I was stronger, in control. I don't know why. And he was screaming but …"

"Sammy …"

"We went into the hole. We were falling and … and then I woke up in St. Louis."

Dean leaned back, bewildered. "St. Louis? What the hell's in St. Louis?"

"A cemetery?" Sam shrugged. "Adam wasn't there. I looked. I've been looking."

Dean nodded and looked at Castiel. "Zachariah brought Adam back to use as bait. Is he in heaven?"

"I'll have to look," Castiel nodded, still a little stunned. "The signets I burned into your ribs are still in tact. Adam's might be as well, he could be hidden somewhat."

Sam wiped his face and sniffled making Dean grin and look at Lisa.

But Lisa was watching him very carefully. "What'd I miss?"

"I don't know," Lisa almost pouted. "I'd have to get the notebook to remember all the creatures."

Dean grinned. Lisa knew this was Sam; Castiel wouldn't lie about that. She was giving him time to pull it together. He sat back from Sam and pointed to the rug taking up most of the door way, "Not a demon," Dean stated.

Sam lifted the edge of the rug and nodded at the devil's trap. "I didn't even think of that. Still," he looked at Lisa, "you shouldn't have risked grabbing me like you did."

"We have neighbors," she stated.

"A skinwalker?"

"They can make themselves look like anyone. Skin peels off and then feels like slimy clay," Lisa stated as Sam used his sleeve to dry his face.

Dean tugged on Sam's ear and grinned. "A Revenant would be next." Dean raised a brow at her.

"Oh, damn it. No! They're like zombies but independent."

"Right."

"I can't believe you're teaching her this stuff."

"You check with silver."

"Good."

Sam pulled a silver knife out of his boot and drew it gently cross his arm. It only drew a little blood but that was enough. "Why are you teaching …"

"They have to know how to protect themselves when I'm not here," Dean grunted as he stood and moved to help Lisa to her feet. "Do you mind …"

"If you ask if I mind your brother being alive and a guest in this house I will squirt you with holy water," Lisa warned and aimed a water bottle at him.

"I can't stay and …"

Lisa glared at Sam and ordered, "You're staying … at least for dinner."

"Yes, ma'am."

Dean almost bounced on his toes and kissed Lisa softly before offering Sam a hand up.

Castiel stood from the couch, back in command of all his Angelness. "Have you suffered any withdrawal from the demon blood?"

"I woke up soaked in sweat, but no withdrawal, no." He almost couldn't look at Dean but made himself do it. "I think I really hit bottom. I haven't touched it. No cravings either."

Dean clamped a hand around the back of Sam's neck and smiled. "You think God did this, Cas?"

"It's the only thing that could have happened." Castiel nodded and then looked at Sam and grinned. "Welcome back, Sam."

"Thanks, Cas," Sam sighed tiredly.

"I need to get back, but I will find Adam."

"Castiel," Lisa spoke up, "come to Sunday dinner. This week is shaping up to be extra special."

"I will try," Castiel smiled and vanished.

"You invite Cas to dinner?"

"I try to catch him at least once a month," Lisa nodded and then sighed. "I'm exhausted and there wasn't even a fight. Come into the kitchen and I'll make coffee."

"We need to call Bobby," Dean sighed and grinned at Sam again as they followed her.

Lisa frowned slightly in confusion, "He'll be here in few hours."

"Its better he has warning or there _will_ be a fight."


End file.
